An image-space algorithm for hardware-based rendering of constructive solid geometry

A new approach to image-space hardware-based rendering of Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) models is presented. The work is motivated by the evolving functionality and performance of computer graphics hardware. This work is also motivated by a specific industrial application --- interactive verification of five axis grinding machine tool programs. The goal is to minimise the amount of time required to render each frame in an animation or interactive application involving boolean combinations of three dimensional shapes. The Sequenced Convex Subtraction (SCS) algorithm utilises sequenced subtraction of convex objects for the purpose of interactive CSG rendering. Concave shapes must be decomposed into convex shapes for the purpose of rendering. The length of Permutation Embedding Sequences (PESs) used as subtraction sequences are shown to have a quadratic lower bound. In ma ny situations shorter sequences can be used, in the best case linear. Approaches to subtraction sequence encoding are presented including the use of object-space overlap information. The implementation of the algorithm is experimentally shown to perform better on modern commodity graphics hardware than previously reported methods. This work also examines performance aspects of the SCS algorithm itself. Overall performance depends on hardware characteristics, the number and spatial arrangement of primitives, and the structure and boolean operators of the CSG tree